


Take a break.

by loisselina (LoisSelina)



Series: Famiglia [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Dad Rossi, Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Haleys alive, References to Abuse, Rossi is Hotch's dad, Rossi is Hotch's surrogate father, messed about with the timelines a little, so it Hotchs dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25118959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoisSelina/pseuds/loisselina
Summary: Rossi forces Hotch to stop working on a case for the night, only to find out Hotch's not so secret obsession.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & David Rossi
Series: Famiglia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1819993
Comments: 10
Kudos: 75





	Take a break.

**Author's Note:**

> I reworked the timeline so Rossi is a bit older but that honestly doesn't matter, also Haley is still alive but her and Hotch are no longer together, and Hotch's dad is alive and a bastard.

_ Aaron Hotchner was nine years old when he decided he wanted to join the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit.  _

_ Aaron Hotchner was eleven years when he first said it out loud.  _

_ Aaron Hotchner was thirteen when he realised that he would not be allowed to be an FBI profiler. _

_ Aaron Hotchner was twenty three when he decided he would become one anyway. _

* * *

Rossi rapped his knuckles on the open doorway of Hotch’s office, he watched as the dark head shot up from his paperwork to look at him, he felt a stirring of pride to watch Hotch’s face soften. “Working late?” 

“Isn’t that what we do?”

Rossi smiled softly at Hotch’s attempted joke. “Still, put it off until tomorrow, it’s late.”

“I can’t I have some other files I need to work on tomorrow-”

“ _ Aaron _ , we just got back from the other side of the country where none of us slept and we ended up searching the woods for hours in the rain, everyone else left hours ago where hopefully they warmed themselves up, you should follow their example.”

“ _ Dave _ -” Hotch protested with a heavy sigh, he knew that if the rest of their team had heard his tone he would have gained several stares. 

Rossi shook his head. He knew that Hotch was a grown man; a serious, rarely smiling, exasperated man, but Rossi could remember when he was the serious, sometimes smiling, new FBI recruit, and the serious, never smiling child. “You can be a real bonehead, sometimes, you know that?”

“I take it back, I don’t like you being back, I’d take Gideon any day.” Hotch grumbled under his breath, looking down at the paperwork signing his precise signature onto the line at the bottom.

Rossi let out a laugh, inviting himself into the office, the one which had once been his, while Gideon had the other. “No, you don’t.”

Hotch looked back up at Rossi, raising a brow, clearly disagreeing. “Seriously Dave, I’m fine, I just want to sort these out. And I showered here.”

“You know many things have changed since I’ve been gone,” Rossi’s voice took on the wistful tone which normally got the team to shut up and listen to him, now was no different. “But those showers have never been anything past lukewarm, that’s part of the FBI charm, I know they didn’t suddenly improve it.” He levelled him with a look, and when Hotch showed no reaction Rossi snatched the file from in front of him, he glanced over it before putting an almost innocently curious. “What’s this for?” 

Hotch rolled his eyes. “It’s the approval for the plan we used to storm Banjo’s house.”

“Hmm.” Rossi held it out to Hotch. “It’s actually a form to send Reid across the country for a series of lectures at community colleges, which no one thinks is a good idea.”

“What?!” Hotch snatched it back, suddenly glad Rossi had come in, even if it was annoying, that was until the older man swooped up the think manilla file Hotch had been really working on. “Dave-!” He protested but Rossi, as usual, paid no attention to him. The team leader couldn’t help but grimace when Rossi sighed. 

“Aaron.”

“I don’t work on it during working hours, I don’t direct anyones resources but my own to it, and most of the resources are newspaper articles, there’s nothing which could have me officially discip-”

“ _ Aaron. _ ” This time Hotch shut up. “I know you believe that your father was involved in these, but there’s never been any evidence that he was involved, I’m sure you’ve found the same, right?”

“Just because there’s no evidence doesn’t mean he didn’t do it, or didn’t at least know that his best friend was killing teenage boys, it doesn’t mean he won’t start up again.”

“Kid, your dad is and probably always will be a bastard and an asshole. But until they make that illegal no one is going to charge a judge based on no evidence, no confession, no murmurs or hints of him being a killer.”

“Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.” Hotch repeated again under his breath, and not for the first time Rossi was reminded of the nine year old Aaron Hotchner he had known while investigating his father. 

“It doesn’t. But there’s nothing you can do to try and prove it at midnight in your office alone.”

“Rossi I could-”

“-Are you doing anything right here, right now, which can’t wait another seven hours?”

“ _ Rossi _ -”

“Don’t  _ Rossi _ me,  _ kid _ .” He watched Hotch sit up straighter and nearly regretted it, but there was no closed off look in his eyes, in fact the exact opposite, so he continued with his paternal tone. “I’ve not seen you sleep, eat, or rest the entire time we were on the case or the ride there or back, so you’re going to leave that file in the perfectly organised cabinet I’m sure you have dedicated purely to this case and you’re going to come back with me to my house, I’ll whip us up a spaghetti alla carbonara, then you can stay in the guest room.” 

His voice brokered no arguing. But Hotch had once been a little less Hotch-like, a little more rebellious, so he had to try. “You know I have my own apartment?”

“I do.” 

“And that I’m your superior.” 

This time Rossi tried his best not to smile but the corners of his mouth still tugged up. “I do.”

Hotch sighed. He did as he was told. 

Rossi knew dragging him away was the best thing, still he was going soft in his old age, and the slump to his shoulders was tugging at his heart strings. “Aaron, if your father commits a single crime, if he so much as jaywalks, trust me I’d be the first lining up to arrest him. But until that day you can’t punish yourself by obsessing over this crap.”

Hotch bit his lip as he hesitated, before meeting Rossi’s eyes, the only member of his team he let see uncertain or doubting, vulnerable, but only because Rossi knew him so well and for so long that he would see him like this anyway. “If he hurt more kids because I let the statute of limitations run out, because I didn’t report him, then it’s on  _ me _ .”

“Aaron,” Rossi sighed. “You were just a kid. It wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault.” 

Hotch shrugged his shoulders with a sigh. “But, if I had told you when I was a kid…”

“Then you would have saved yourself, but that doesn’t put it onto you, you shouldn’t have had to be saved.” Rossi told him firmly. He tried not to let slip the sting he felt when he thought back to nine year old Hotch, to the signs of abuse he tried to convince Gideon of, to the lack of proof, to Gideon telling him not to pursue it, to focus on the case.  
“Any crimes your father has or hasn’t committed isn’t on you, kid, anymore than the crimes of Carl Buford are on Morgan. So unless you want to go and tell Morgan that it’s his fault…?”

“Of course not!”

“Then shut up.” Rossi grabbed his friend’s coat from the rack and chucked it onto the desk in front of him. “Come on, if you get sick because of your own stupidity I’m letting JJ go all ‘mama bear’ on you.” 

“Why?,” Hotch stood up, slipping his coat on and picking his briefcase and go-bag up, “Worried she’s going to steal your job?” 

Aaron responded without a beat of hesitation, his voice and face was mild, but Rossi knew him well enough to see the sparks of light in his brown eyes and the teasing edges to his lips. He rolled his eyes but inside he was relieved, Aaron Hotchner was going to be okay, at least for tonight, and that was enough for David Rossi.


End file.
